When I lived in Germany back in 1990-1992, it was expensive to take photographs. I lived about 15 minutes away from the beautiful city of Rothenburg, and I visited it all the time, but I never took a good photo of “The House”. I’ve always regretted not having the photograph that I could see in my mind. I didn’t have it, in part, because buying a roll of film and having it processed ended up costing about $15-20 per roll. For 36 photos.
I’ve had days where – thanks to digital – I shoot 800 photos in a day. 36? Really, really limiting.
So back to “The House”. You see, if you open up almost any guidebook about Germany, you will see this exact house somewhere in the book. Matter of fact, it is actually on the cover of some books. It is a pretty house, with the old inner wall of the city and one of the towers behind it. It is quite charming.
We walked through the gate every day we were in Rothenburg, sometimes twice a day. The center of town is up the hill behind me, and the hostel is on the other side of the gate. Every time we passed The House, I stopped and took photos of it. And I was thankful for the opportunity.
This was taken towards the end of our last night in town. We had just had some delicious ice cream, and we were heading back to the hostel. The light was perfect – exactly the light I had been hoping for, the light I wanted for the photograph that had been in my mind for so long. There were no tourists around at that moment. Just us and The House.
Patience is indeed a virtue, and I may have waited over 15 years to capture this very image, but I would not have had it any other way – at the end of a long wonderful vacation, with Mike & Jason right there by my side.
10 replies on “Just What I Was Waiting For…”
Rothenberg was a favorite stop when I was in Germany, 19 years ago. I surprised myself that I was able to identify the location of the picture, but I too remember walking through that tower. Just lovely.
How beautiful! I love the lighting…just a perfect picture. And is that a “Zwinger” in the background?!!
Love,
Mom
Great photo. Well worth the wait.
It’s nice to be able to fixed the things you regret not doing or doing. Ya know, you don’t always have a second chance at things in life, good for you. Very redemptive. Nice pict too.
It’s as if The House is in a parallel world that’s been waiting all this time (with patience) for your return with your family.
Love the image Christine but love the story behind it even better…
That is an awesome shot! I’ve been to Rothenburg a bajillion times on class field trips and later as an adult. So, did you go to the Kathe Wohlfahrt store there?
Oh, if you are ever in Indianapolis, I’d be interested in getting some family pictures taken!
What a GREAT photo!!!
That’s a beautiful photo. Rothenburg is such a great place – I hope I get to go back some day!
I also remember those days when we use film to shoot photos. I carefully choose what to shoot, just the really good ones so that it will be worth the film that I’m using. But nowadays, we can even take consecutive shots of a single imagery.